"THE PICTURES"

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1914, Page 2

"THE PICTURES"

■Q. KINEMA FILMS & PROFITS REMARKABLE FIGURES • The approaching majority of kinematography may well call for a brief review of the extraordinary growth of the industry since that eventful day in 1893 when at the World's Fair, Chicago, Thomas Edison's kinetoscope was introduced to an amazed public (writes Langford Reed in a late issue of the London Daily Mail). To-day it is computed that in Great Britain alone about 8,000,000 individuals attend "the pictures" every week, while the various picture palaces employ over 120,000 people, at a weekly wage bill amounting to quite £250,000. Six years ago tho number of such employees was certainly below 1000, and their earnings not more than £2000. A comparison of the picture-palace growth for the last few years of an ordinary London suburb and an ordinary big provincial town gives a pretty good idea of the influence exerted by the bioscope over the country as a whole. Brixton, which a few years ago possessed one small picture theatre, now has nine ! Most of these are elaborate 'and spacious buildings, which in the aggregate provide seating accommodation for 6600 people ! Portsmouth in the same period has advanced from four halls to twenty-two, representing a combined seating accommodation of over 15,000— roughly a sixteenth of the population ! In the United States the growth is even more phenomenal. ' Six million people are said to attend the pictures daily, and , the town, of Minneapolis, which has 69 licensed moving picture theatres for its population of about 300,000, may be said to be typical of the wholo country. 60,000 PICTURE THEATRES IN THE WORLD. The number of picture theatres in the whole world, it is estimated, exceeds 60,000. Even Jerusalem and prehistoric places in China and Japan have now been reached — indeed, in the latter country there is no town of any size without a permanent picture show of its own. The United States takes the lead in " producing," and it is no exaggeration to say that 50 per cent, of the world's moving pictures are filmed there. The American manufacturers also send their producers and stock companies travelling all over the globe, creating pictures that require a nonAmerican setting in their proper environment. American producer's- are inimitable in everything except^ historical subjects; in this class of -work they have everything to learn Ji'om their British confreres. " FILMS THAT COST FORTUNES, t Spectacular films have, of course, enormously increased the cost of production, and several small fortunes havo recently been expended in this way. "Tho Three Musketeers," from first to last, cost to produce nearly £20,000, " The . Battle, 'of Gettysburg" and "Antony and Cleopatra" over £16,000 each, "The Miracle" and "The Last Days of Pompeii* '£15,000 each, "Sixty. Years a Queen" £12,000, and f -Vfiamkt U X*fri ' fitml'fotVtE^ja^^rsolid- built-up scenes - have taken "the place of flimsy stage sets and painted backcloths.' In "Sixty Years! a Queen," for example, exact replicas were'made of a ( great portion of Westminster' Abbey and of the Crystal Palace by a vast army of carpenters, whose .weekly / wage bill amounted to ,£2O0 v The salaries of the artists -engaged amounted to £7982, and the cost of the wigs and dresses for the principals alone was £1250. Increased cost in production has naturally brought a corresponding increase in selling price, When spectacular subjects first came definitely into vogue, about three years ago, they could be bought- in the open market for 4d a foot. Public auction is now tho recognised method, and huge sums aro realised. The British rights of "Antony and Cleopatra" for three years were sold for £8100, while "From Manger to Cross," "Les Mieerables," and "Quo Vadis?" have brought their manufacturers Irom all sources close on £100,000. • Though the United States takes the lead in producing, this country is ea-sily first in the matter of distribution, quite 8a per cent, of the world's films being " released" here. A significant feature of the rapid development of kinematography is the fact that the number of new companies Eormed in connection Avith the trade during the first eight months of the present year was 349, representing a capital of £1,855,700, compared with 236 companies with a < capital of £1,001,700 for the corresponding period of 1912. As an instance of rapid profit, the writer tho other day heard of a man who bought for £10,000 an ex-Hip-podrome originally costing £40,000, and who is now" making a profit of £250 a week ! £1000 PRIZE FOR A PLOT. There has been a tremendous advance, too, in the .prices paid for film stories Five years ago tho standard price for a good "scenario was a guinea, and very often "plots" were bought for 10s, Vs 6d, pnd even ss. Now from £2 to £10 is tlio. recognised price, according to tho length of the =übject, while wetlknown authors who adapt their literary stories for the kinema are paid sums and royalties commensurate with their reputation. For the scenario of a forthcoming Anvrican production £400 was paid to th» lucky anthor, while- a well-known" Italian company h offering a prms of £1000 i"v the best plot cenT, in before April "With it^.i l'd to the thwitrr J>nd exhibition pVIp of tho kinematograph lr?i\", I am firmly of opinion that we have rpaclipd thp ze>nith ; when, as has beeii shown, a single suburb of London hap n'ue pinture theatres, 'it is surely time to pruse. But the production side is only in Us infancy, and will certaii'y "not rracli maturity in the piesent t; iteration. N"varth<;les% tho last few years have witnessed a gr«at improvement in tho ion-j of the film ttories issued, and livjuo dramns and knock-about farces have bpen almost entirely superseded bjgoo^, clean pictures. Thanks also to aucli public-spirited men as Mr. Thomas Edison in the United State?, and Mr. Charles Uibari in England, mid the pracrical cucourac^enipnt of such a journal <-v tl'fi 1,-ondon Evening News, tho numbor of purely educational films in common «*ij" I'l-'i -.Jiown to a remarkable extent.